They’re not Mr S’s favorite thing, and I can understand why. Hunting frocks lack pizzazz, buttons, tape, lace, lapels, skirts and all the things that make him so fond of the Ugly Dog Coat worn by the 10th Massachusetts in 1782. (I think these are the coats captured from British supply ships and dyed at Newburgh and West Point in tanner’s vats.) But what he has right now is a hunting frock.

Here’s the kid in his new hunting frock, and a hand colored copper engraving by Johann Martin Will from 1776.

And then there are the colored and plain engravings, “1. Americanischer scharffschütz oder Jäger (rifleman) 2. regulaire infanterie von Pensylvanien,” engraved by Berger after Chodowiecki.

Library of Congress

Ann S. K. Brown Collection

I started thinking about these again because not only am I reading Hurst’s thesis, but I’m fresh from helping the guys get dressed and arrange their capes and straps. I have been doing that as long as Mr S has been wearing historic clothing.

Early days of draping

Drapey capes

The hunting frock drifts if it does not have some kind of fastening at the neck. The two halves migrate in opposite directions, and while belts help, the light infantry bayonet shoulder belt does not contain the hunting frock as well as one might like. So the thing to do, I think, is to attach a loop and button at the neck to hold the garment in place. From the period engravings, I think that’s acceptable. The garments all look as if they are closed at the neck. From the evidence in the field, and from the images, I plan to make loops and attach buttons, and hope that will limit some tendency to wander.

The image of the two soldiers together suggests another wrinkle in the hunting frock quandary, since the left hand soldier’s out garment looks like a long pocket-less coat with applied fringe and only a very small cape at the neck. Thank goodness that soldier is a rifleman, and thus outside the realm of immediate relevance. (And on a side note, I know a gentleman who very much resembles the Pennsylvania infantry man: identical calves, and even a similar face.)

Cassandra doesn’t like wearing uniforms and bayonets. She wants to wear a dress. She will have to be patient. (Actually, she is wearing a chintz jacket in need of a hem, and if I revolt against buttonholes, I might finish that tonight. More fringe must be made this evening for the hunting frock.)

I switched to Mr S’s overalls for awhile, and we’ve done the first fitting, which gets us to buttonholes and then re-basting the inseam and outseam. In the process, I discovered that he does, in fact, have a twisty leg. I do not think it is statistically probable that the two pairs of overalls I have cut for him and the pair cut by Mr Cooke would all include the same slightly on the bias leg. So I reversed my plans to get those done, and will stick with getting them to fitting number two. They will need a master’s hand and eye for fitting.

Sunday: One last strip o’ fringe required.

But I think I have a plan for food for Monmouth, have confessed to Mr S that, based on the Monmouth sutler list, we must leave room in the car for possible additions to the Strategic Fabric Reserve, and have convinced the child to try learning a new song on the drum. I also started a new pocket, but I’m not sure if my hands can take the backstitching. Slipstitching and whipstitching aren’t too painful, but backstitching proved quite painful last night. It’s totally annoying, because it’s pointless to post a photo until it’s done and right-side out!

You can see the binding, but not the stripes. Silly!

But this will be a panicky, intense week of samplers, reference, grant applications, and event prep. I suppose that’s not too different from many other weeks…though the last time I had this combination, we were only going to Sturbridge. I took comfort in the idea of how close we were to home, the way the cat knows how long it takes to dash to the basement when the doorbell rings. From Monmouth, it’s a long way back to my own basement.

Pattern: Cut by Mr. Cooke, who used a yardstick, chalk, and an extant shirt (for the cape curve). I have watched him cut two now, and it’s pretty cool.

Year: 1778-1781 <choke> I forgot to ask.

Notions:Does thread count? That’s all this takes.

How historically accurate is it? Based on Mr. Cooke’s research into the hunting shirts worn by Massachusetts troops, and revised to reflect recent research by Neal Hurst, this frock pattern reflects the most current, accurate representation of the hunting frocks (sometimes called shirts) worn by Continental troops during the American Revolutionary War. The garment is entirely hand-sewn using, as much as possible, the correct (thankfully basic) stitches. Flat-felled seams, all that good stuff. Any place it is incorrect is purely my own genius.

Triangles and trapezoids!

Hours to complete: Remember those soul-crushing hours? Yes, these were among them. Actually, no, it’s not too bad. Perhaps twenty-four? You can power down on one of these, but even once you have the initial fringing done and the fringes attached, you will have more thread-pulling ahead of you.

First worn: Monday, May 27, 2013, for the Memorial Day Parade in Warren, Rhode Island.

Total cost: $45, for the linen and the cutting. Your mileage may vary, as the Young Mr and Mr S are in the regiment for which Mr. Cooke is the adjutant.

Hunting Shirt/Frock Schematic, no scale whatsoever

To the person looking for the “best rifle frock for rev war reenacting,” I have to say, it depends. If you are with a Rhode Island regiment, for example, the linen you choose could be brighter, to reflect the fact that the state called for “whitened towcloth” for hunting frocks for Rhode Island troops. I have found some I think might be likely at Burnley and Trowbridge, but I have not checked it with the RI captain. You need to know if your regiment or group favors hunting shirts (pull over) or hunting frocks (open down the front), and then you need to figure out what kind of linen they were wearing in the period.

But, like a shirt of the period, these garments are very simple: triangles for the gussets (or squares), rectangles, and just the curved cape. The pattern (schematic) at right is adapted from what I have seen Mr. Cooke cut, which is quite similar to the Brigade of the American Revolution pattern I had for the Rhode Island frock I made (also entirely by hand). Since these were so close to shirts, they would have been very easy to construct, and since they’re large, measurements could be generalized. The BAR pattern does not use the under-arm gussets, and the sleeves are not tapered; there is more fringe on the standard Rhode Island frock than on the Massachusetts frock, but there seem to have been variations at the time.

You may also wish to consider whether or not there is a difference between hunting frocks and rifle frocks (I do not know, please don’t ask, I wasn’t told this would be on the test).

For more, here is Neal Hurst, on Fringe on the American Hunting Frock. You can read it before or after you pull threads out of those two inch strips until only 6 to 8 remain in the center. Happy fringing!

Oh, my goodness, it’s done! It’s done, and the photos have passed the master. Phew! Just one more to go, oh, my goodness, no.

The Young Mr was allowed to carry a musket in the Warren Memorial Day Parade. I do not love a parade, so I didn’t go. But he had no overalls of suitable fit and they were so nearly done, that I resolved to finish them, and finish them I did, in time for bed on Saturday, no less. It’s all thanks to BBC’s brutal but entrancing programming. My sewing better to blood curdling screams (also courtesy ITV), which seems awful but there it is…though the darkness of Mad Men has proven good for back stitching, decent button holes require murder.

Buttonholes. I hate those guys less now.

Fifteen button holes, multiple fittings, and some curse words have resulted in a pair of decent-fitting overalls that did not split at the knee or stretch too extremely when worn. And atop it all, in the yard if not in the parade, the new model hunting front adopted by the 10th Massachusetts. The Young Mr is uniform-forward as Neal Hurst’s research has led the adjutant to conclude that the men were wearing frocks, and not shirts. (In the Rhode Island records, I found that rifle frocks were listed until 1780/1781, when the Records of the State of Rhode Island began to indicate rifle or hunting “frocks or shirts.” That’s a wrinkle for Mr Hurst, but I saw only frock in 1777-1780.)

Lunatic fringe. Cut, fold, clip, strip, stitch.

The fringing is a task completed by Mr S, who has fringed the strips for his own Rhode Island hunting frock, and now knows what fun awaits him as another frock will made for him. My goal? Another complete 10th Massachusetts kit by June 15. I’ve sewn buttonholes in a moving car before, and I expect to be felling seams or sewing buttonholes as we travel down to New Jersey. They’ll be fine; after all, the traffic is murder.